SPECIAL FEATURES
Commentary by Director Robert Stone; The Patty Hearst tapes (audio); Footage: Hibernia Bank Robery; Deleted Scenes: Sacramento Courthouse; Theatrical Trailer; Photo Gallery

In 1974, a teenage newspaper heiress and Berkeley undergrad was kidnapped at gunpoint from her apartment, setting off one of the most bizarre episodes in recent history. The kidnappers, completely off the map before Patty Hearst disappeared into the San Francisco night, were a small band of young, ferociously militant political radicals, dedicated to the rights of prisoners and the working class. They called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Over the course of about three years they robbed banks, senselessly killed two innocent people, instigated a firefight after attempting to shoplift a pair of socks, and, most famously, converted their hostage and victim. They also achieved an undeniably visionary manipulation of the media, inciting perhaps the first modern media frenzy. Presenting resonating questions about the role of the media in America--mouthpiece? Messenger? Truth seeker?

The ethical dilemmas posed by new technologies, and the proximity of madness to political extremism.

Fascinating
Margaret Pomeranz AT THE MOVIES
Read the review

A remarkable story
David Stratton AT THE MOVIES

This story has everything: sex, violence, radical politics, and a tragicomic absurdity beyond the most far-out fiction
Jake Wilson URBAN CINEFILE

This engrossing documentary, with its superb archival footage and inervews with survivaing SLA members, could scarcely be bettered
Evan William THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN